Thursday, September 15, 2016

Ampla Fly 6 month Review

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Disclaimer: I received a pair of Ampla Fly shoes to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (Ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews

Rob Colby is one of two former
Quiksilver Inc. executives who acquired the assets of
Ampla out of Quiksilver
bankruptcy proceedings in October of 2015. The small start-up company got off the
ground a few years back as a Brand X innovation project (under the banner
of Quiksilver), but it wasn’t highly publicized.Dr. Marcus Elliott, a noted sports
scientist, developed prototypes of the Ampla Fly, which has a unique carbon-fiber platform.It looks really weird, but is made to
compress when you land and give you a little boost when you push off.

Dr. Elliott is a Harvard-trained
physician who specializes in performance enhancement and injury prevention of
pro athletes at P3 Applied Sports Science in Santa Barbara, California. The Ampla Fly was designed to guide your foot to a better ground
contact position, gather force during your foot’s contact with the ground,
and give you a return of energy during the toe-off phase of your running gait. The
claim is that the Ampla Fly can help improve running mechanics, cadence, and posture.

Ampla is a direct-to-consumer only
brand.That means that you won’t find Ampla’s in your local running store or at other online
retailers.You can only get them from
Ampla (either online or at expos).What
does that mean for you though?When
companies sell their shoes in stores, they have to pay for shipping and other
overhead costs.By selling directly to
their customers, Ampla takes a shoe that would cost $180 in the stores and can
offer it to you for $120.

They have a 1-on-1 relationship with
each of their customers.If you have a
question and email Ampla, it will be answered by Rob Colby (co-owner) himself.The brand only has 6 people working for them,
which also keeps the cost down and provides a more personal experience.

What
makes this shoe different from all others?

The Ampla Fly looks completely different than any shoe that I have
seen.It almost looks like something out
of a futuristic movie.Most shoes have
somewhat flexible soles.They bend and
flex throughout your gait cycle.The Fly does not flex due to the fact that it has a carbon fiber
force (flip) plate that is supposed to guide your foot into a better ground
contact position.I thought this lack of
flex would be an issue because I am used to very flexible shoes.It wasn’t an issue at all.In fact, I feel that the force plate does
exactly what it was designed to do, teach me how to run more efficiently, but
more on that later.A word of caution
though.If you already have Plantar
Fasciitis, the stiff carbon fiber force plate might aggravate your condition,
from what I have heard.I have not had
any issues with this personally though.

I also wasn’t sure what to expect from
the springboard part of the shoe.It
looks like it would feel weird or that you would notice a huge spring with each
step.While it did feel kind of
different walking in the shoe, once I started running, it just felt natural.It does feel somewhat clunky if you are a heavy
heel striker, but that’s the point.The
shoe itself, teaches you to land more mid to forefoot with just a little
forward propulsion.

The bottom of the shoe does show wear
rather quickly, but I found that it did not make a difference with performance
and even after 6 months of testing these shoes (between my friend and I) the
shoes are still holding up.

The top of the Ampla Flys is breathable and
the way your foot sits in the shoe feels great.The overall construction of the shoe is awesome and that the materials
are top notch.I did notice that my heel
did slip up and down in the shoe, especially when I was breaking in the shoe.After I wore in the heel, it got better and I
used the lace-lock method of tying my shoes to help fix this issue as well.

Where
to use and not use the Ampla Fly

The Ampla Fly was designed to be used mainly for training.It performs best on the track or on somewhat
level paved roads and bike trails.It is
not designed to use on gravel roads, uneven trails, or even really crowned
roads.Because of the carbon force plate
not flexing, running on those types of surfaces could be uncomfortable on your
feet and ankles so keep that in mind when you take them out for a run.

My
Initial Testing

So this is actually the second pair of Ampla
Flys that I have
tested.I reviewed them back in February
(click
here for my first review).A fellow blogger was just as excited to try
them out as I was and we happen to wear the same size shoe.I figured I was so blown away with the Ampla
Flys that I would give
him my pair so he could test them out and review them on his blog.He was so impressed, I let him have the
shoes, not knowing what a valuable tool they really were.

In my initial testing earlier this
year, I ran on both paved roads and at the local track.The results were the same in both
situations.I found that my foot strike
was more natural and it made me want to put more emphasis on the toe off part
of my gait, which I had never really been good at.I was able to keep a quicker cadence with
less effort and my running form seemed to be easier to hold, even at the
hardest parts of my workout.

So how did this translate into my pace
during my initial testing?You need to
take into account that I had been training hard and had lost weight when
looking at my times.I went out to the
track to do 4x1 mile intervals, which my half marathon training plan at the
time was calling for.My fastest mile to
date was 7:32 min/mile.Here are my
splits for my intervals:

Mile 1: 7:53

Mile 2: 7:07

Mile 3: 7:36

Mile 4: 6:45 (new PR)

While I may be a little faster due to my
training and weight loss.There is no
way that beating my mile PR by 47 seconds (on my last interval) and having 2 of
my 4 intervals faster than my PR didn’t at least have a little to do with the Ampla
Fly’s though.

Testing
them again 6 months later

I received another pair to test as a BibRave Pro since I gave my first
pair away.I got the black version this
time, which is extremely sharp looking.Other than the color, they are identical shoes.I tested the shoes on fast runs, intervals,
long runs, and even took them out on the decomposed granite track near my
work.I didn’t necessarily learn
anything new, but was reminded about the true benefits and purpose of the Ampla Flys.

My form gradually shifted over the past
6 months and became less efficient.I
actually didn’t notice this until I started testing the Flys again.Almost instantly, I noticed that my running
form became more efficient and that I had more energy later in my runs.I experienced the same wear patterns as in
the first pair that I tested, but since the first pair is still holding up
after 6 months, I am not too concerned.

Does this shoe make you feel faster? Not
necessarily.I do feel like it takes
less of an effort to go fast though.I
am able to keep my cadence up and stay in better running form longer.While these won’t be my every day running
shoe, I will use them on a regular basis to reinforce my correct running
form.It is an awesome tool to help you
run as efficiently as possible, which in turn will help you run faster and
farther.After all of my testing, I
agree that the Ampla Fly can help improve running mechanics, cadence, and posture.

I
would be lying if I told you I wasn’t a little skeptical when I first got the Ampla
Flys in
the mail.I have tried unique shoe
designs in the past and most of them were terrible.I was shocked to discover how natural and
comfortable they felt.You don’t feel
like you are getting help, but my tests have shown that I was faster and more
efficient not only when ran in the Flys,
but the benefits transferred to my other shoes as well.I know there are a lot of other variables
like training hard, but beating my previous mile PR by 47 seconds cannot just
be my training.The Ampla
Flys are the real deal.They are worth testing out.You can buy them from Ampla’s
website for $120.Welcome to the future
of running!